Withdrawal from Afghanistan may end drone program over Pakistan

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Fox News: Uncertainty about US future in Afghanistan forces Pentagon to explore Pakistan drone options​

Uncertainty about whether any U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan next year jeopardizes the American drone program over Pakistan, forcing the Pentagon to explore other options to keep it alive.

Without U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. would have to close its bases, including the ones responsible for launching drones.

Asked Friday at a Pentagon press conference whether the military would consider basing drones in India, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said “we have to consider everything, as we are.”

Already there has been a drop in confirmed U.S. drone strikes over Pakistan from 122 in 2010 to just 26 last year, according to numbers provided by the Washington-based think tank New America Foundation.

Unintended consequences? I doubt it. The Great Pretender was well aware of the impact of withdrawing from Afghanistan on the interdiction of terrorist leadership hiding in Pakistan when he announced the withdrawal three years ago. He likely knew that Afghani President Hamid Karzai would be opposed to extending the drawdown beyond the end of this year.

Why? Who knows? I gave up trying to track the rabbit trails in this traitor's agenda a long time ago. But then again, Marxists rarely think logically in terms of the scheme of world security anyway.

 

[Don]

Personally, I don't see this as a bad thing. I'm not convinced that the amount of money being funneled into that area is providing any real return on investment.

For example, the president recently changed his tune from "Al Qaeda is beaten" to "Al Qaeda is beaten, but still is a threat."

He pulled nearly all of the troops out of Iraq, and we've seen what's been happening there; we can fully expect the same to happen in the Afghanistan/Pakistan area ... no matter when we leave.

No the only real reasons to continue a presence in that area is to have a forward staging location for other possible conflicts; and to keep funneling money into the defense budget.

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Oh, and by the way: "afghani" refers to things, not people. They consider it a sign of disrespect when you refer to them as "afghani." The proper term is just "afghan." Now, Iraq, on the other hand, doesn't mind "iraqi." Go figure.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

He pulled nearly all of the troops out of Iraq, and we've seen what's been happening there; we can fully expect the same to happen in the Afghanistan/Pakistan area ... no matter when we leave.

Why should we expect anything better to occur if we're not making an effort to curb the terrorist? Your post doesn't make any sense, Don. Our absence is certainly going to result in increased terrorist activity, and if we don't take out their leadership, they will simply act in ever bolder and bolder manner until they again attack the U.S. mainland as they did on September 11, 2001.

Oh, and by the way: "afghani" refers to things, not people. They consider it a sign of disrespect when you refer to them as "afghani."

I know.

 

[Don]

Why should we expect anything better to occur if we're not making an effort to curb the terrorist? Your post doesn't make any sense, Don. Our absence is certainly going to result in increased terrorist activity, and if we don't take out their leadership, they will simply act in ever bolder and bolder manner until they again attack the U.S. mainland as they did on September 11, 2001.

I'm not advocating that we stop fighting terrorism. But where is Al Qaeda? Are their leaders in Afghanistan? bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan; his successor is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

There are certainly al Qaeda operations occurring in Afghanistan; but they're also occurring in Syria, Egypt, Nigeria, and other countries. Are we opening bases in those areas?

I'm looking at this from fiscal sense. What is the actual logic to keep pushing millions (billions?) of dollars into the country of Afghanistan?

Is there a different way to fight this war?

I know.

Then thank you for refraining from doing so in the future.

 

[poncho]

The global bankers make billions laundering (illegal) drug money. The Afghans supply something like 90% of the worlds opium.

X + Y = $$$ for the banking elite.

It's just a matter of simple mathematics.

Keep drugs illegal . . . the bankers will love us for it.

The problem I have with drone strikes using metadata only is that they are not making sure of their targets this way. You need to have content not just metadata to know that it is your target. Humint could point you to a bad guy; but, even then, you still need to have content to insure that is the same guy using the phone or originating the e-mail. This is why I call the strikes by metadata alone a “undisciplined slaughter.” Bill Binney

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/former-high-level-nsa-official-drone-strikes-metadata-alone-undisciplined-slaughter.html


The UK has used American drones over 250 times to carry out previously unreported attacks in Afghanistan, the MoD has admitted. The reports prompted a sharp reaction from British rights groups who slammed the lack of transparency in the UK military.

In response to a freedom of information request by British rights group Drone Wars UK, the Ministry of Defense said it had launched 39 missile strikes from unmanned US craft in Afghanistan. This the first time the Ministry of Defense has admitted to the use of American craft in conflict zones to carry out strikes.

“Of the 2,150 missions flown by UK personnel, there were 271 missions in Afghanistan when UK personnel utilized a US Reaper, as a UK Reaper was unavailable. During these missions, UK personnel released 39 weapons. I am withholding information about weapons released by UK personnel embedded with the United States Air Force on operations in Afghanistan and Libya under Section 27 [of the Freedom of Information Act],” said a statement from the MoD.

http://rt.com/news/uk-us-drones-strikes-320/

So all isn't lost after all TND. At least someone still believes in killing Afghans with drones. Are they the right Afghans? Hey who cares just so long as they die right?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocih62dSJR8#t=0